In the area of superconductivity, which is the occurrence where electrons can flow via a material with fundamentally zero resistance, the “holy grail” of breakthrough is a superconductor that can function under daily pressures and temperatures.
Scientists directly observed a pair-density wave (PDW) in an iron-based superconducting material with no magnetic field present. This state of matter, which is characterized by coupled pairs of electrons that are constantly in motion, had been thought to only arise when a superconductor is placed within a large magnetic field. This exciting result opens new potential avenues of research and discovery for superconductivity.